Faced with situations of extreme anguish, with the fear of losing their home in their bodies and without being clear about their future, some families who live for rent in the El Barco building in Esplugues de Llobregat have decided to resist leaving their apartments. “There are five or six families,” confirmed the first deputy mayor of the City Council, Eduard Sanz.
El Barco is an old residential building that was vacated yesterday after the town council, owner of the property for less than a year, received a report that warned of serious structural problems. The first deputy mayor, Eduard Sanz, explained that in the event of a possible collapse they did not want to take “any risk.”
During yesterday afternoon, families were allowed in to collect essential goods. Some did not want to leave and the intervention of the Mossos was required. Several of them managed to stay in the property, as confirmed by sources from the Catalan police, who are awaiting a court order to carry out a new eviction. The City Council has claimed this court order.
Among some of the families there is fear of losing their rights as tenants – they pay rent to the City Council month by month – if they abandon their homes. Furthermore, all of them demand housing solutions. A place in which to live beyond the emergency alternative provided by the City Council in a social emergency center in Barcelona. They would like to continue in Esplugues de Llobregat.
According to Eduard Sanz, the City Council has already found the first emergency apartments for the inhabitants of El Barco. There are two or three properties that “will be available today.”
Its distribution has been carried out based on the most urgent cases. This is the case of Tamara Molina, whose father suffers from Parkinson’s and must sleep while waiting for a machine. “They have already told me that today they will be able to relocate my father to an apartment in Esplugues. They can help me better, but I will manage,” she told La Vanguardia.
In El Barco, which was inspected this afternoon by the Generalitat Firefighters, some 122 people live, corresponding to 37 family units. Among them, the City Council has counted 25 minors. Thus, with two or three floors, which are confirmed so far, the problem is not solved.
The City Council is working to have between 20 and 30 more homes available in the coming days. “Not all of them will be in Esplugues,” Sanz acknowledged. He is working with specialized third sector entities and with neighboring municipalities. “At the moment I still don’t know anything, this afternoon we have another meeting,” said Azif Kifi, another of those affected, while hugging his daughter. She has four offspring.
Dozens of activists held a rally in favor of the affected neighbors this afternoon in the Baronda space, very close to El Barco. There have been moments of tension with the local police and some activists have entered the building that yesterday functioned as a care center for those affected.
